Coexistence priority selection

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for auto coexistence priority selection for a SCO link are disclosed. Aspects of one method may include a first Bluetooth device communicating with a collocated WLAN device via a coexistence method. The first Bluetooth device, prior to executing a non-SCO task, which may comprise tasks that do not involve SCO packet transfer, may communicate low priority via the coexistence method if a Bluetooth SCO link is present between the first Bluetooth device and a second Bluetooth device, and if a current task being handled by the first Bluetooth device is a high priority task. If a SCO link is not present between the first and second Bluetooth devices, and if the current non-SCO task is a high priority task, the first Bluetooth device may communicate high priority via the coexistence method prior to executing the non-SCO task.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS/INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

This application is a continuation of copending U.S. utility applicationentitled, “Method and System for Auto Coexistence Priority Selection fora SCO Link,” having Ser. No. 11/439,682, filed May 24, 2006.

This application makes reference to U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/439,776 filed on May 24, 2006.

The above stated applications are hereby incorporated herein byreference in their entirety.

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

[Not Applicable]

MICROFICHE/COPYRIGHT REFERENCE

[Not Applicable]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Certain embodiments of the invention relate to wireless communication.More specifically, certain embodiments of the invention relate to amethod and system for auto coexistence priority selection for a SCOlink.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Some conventional communication systems are known to support wirelessand wireline communication between wireless and/or wirelinecommunication devices. Such communication systems range from nationaland/or international cellular telephone systems to the Internet, and topoint-to-point in-home wireless networks. Each type of communicationsystem is designed, and hence operates, in accordance with relevantcommunication standards. For instance, wireless communication systemsmay operate in accordance with one or more standards including, but notlimited to, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services(AMPS), digital AMPS, global system for mobile communications (GSM),code division multiple access (CDMA), local multi-point distributionsystems (LMDS), multi-channel-multi-point distribution systems (MMDS),and/or variations thereof.

Depending on the type of wireless communication system, a wirelesscommunication device, for example, a cellular telephone, two-way radio,personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), laptopcomputer, or home entertainment equipment, communicates directly orindirectly with other wireless communication devices. For directcommunications, also known as point-to-point communications, theparticipating wireless communication devices tune their receivers andtransmitters to the same channel, or channels, and communicate via thosechannel(s). Each channel may utilize one or more of the plurality ofradio frequency (RF) carriers of the wireless communication system. Forindirect wireless communication, each wireless communication devicecommunicates directly with an associated base station, for example, forcellular services, and/or an associated access point, for example, foran in-home or in-building wireless network, via an assigned channel orchannels.

In order for each wireless communication device to participate inwireless communication session, it utilizes a built-in radiotransceiver, which comprises a receiver and a transmitter, or it iscoupled to an associated radio transceiver, for example, a station forin-home and/or in-building wireless communication networks, or a RFmodem. The transmitter converts data into RF signals by modulating thedata in accordance with the particular wireless communication standard.However, different communication systems may use different standards,for example, the IEEE 802.11 standard and the Bluetooth standard, whichmay share the same RF spectrum.

In order to alleviate signal interference from sharing an RF spectrumwith other communication systems, the Bluetooth standard allowsfrequency hopping where information is transmitted at variousfrequencies. In this manner, the energy of the transmitted signal isspread across a RF spectrum from 2.402 GHz to 2.480 GHz in 79 channelswith each channel separated by 1 MHz. The Bluetooth standard allows 1600frequency hops per second. The advantage of the frequency hopping systemis that it spreads information across a wide band of frequencies.Therefore, signals transmitted by other systems using a portion of thesame frequency spectrum may appear as noise to only some of thefrequencies used by Bluetooth in frequency hopping. Similarly, only aportion of Bluetooth transmission may interfere with signals transmittedby other systems.

Two or more Bluetooth devices, up to a total of eight devices, maycomprise a piconet with one master device and up to seven slave devices.The piconet may share a common communication data channel with presentcapacity of 1 megabits per second (Mbps) up to a theoretical maximum of3 Mbps. This data channel is divided in to time slots of 625microseconds. Although a master device may initiate contact with anyslave device, a slave device may only respond to a master device. Apiconet link between a master device and a slave device may be eithersynchronous connection oriented (SCO) link or asynchronousconnectionless (ACL) link. The piconet may support up to three SCOlinks, and any remaining bandwidth may be utilized by ACL links.

In some current systems, a Bluetooth device may share a platform with aWLAN device, and this may be referred to as coexistence. For example, adevice such as a cellular telephone may have integrated thereon aBluetooth radio and a Wireless LAN radio. There are times when theBluetooth radio and the WLAN radio may need to operate simultaneously.For example, since the Bluetooth radio and the WLAN radio are close toeach other in distance, and both operate in the same frequency band,transmission by one radio may interfere with transmission from the otherradio. Transmission by one radio may also interfere with reception onanother radio, or reception by the Bluetooth radio and/or the WLAN radiomay be interfered with by transmission by other Bluetooth radios and/orWLAN radios.

A coexistence method may be used to communicate when a Bluetooth deviceis collocated with a WLAN device. Accordingly, the Bluetooth device maysignal when the Bluetooth device may be receiving and/or transmitting,and the WLAN device may signal when the WLAN device may be transmitting.The Bluetooth device may indicate whether high priority is desired forsubsequent transmissions. The high priority may allow Bluetoothtransmission without interference from a simultaneous WLAN transmission.However, the indication typically may need to be made before the startof a frame.

A coexistence method may make use of a packet traffic arbitration (PTA)unit. The PTA unit may receive the priority indications from the WLANdevice and the Bluetooth device, and may determine whether the Bluetoothdevice or the WLAN device may have priority by signaling appropriatelyto the Bluetooth device and/or the WLAN device. The PTA unit may belocated, for example, with the WLAN circuitry. Accordingly, thesignaling from the Bluetooth device may be to the WLAN circuitry.

In certain instances, the Bluetooth device may continuously transmit ata high priority, and thereby drastically reduce operating efficiency ofthe WLAN device. For example, if a HV2 SCO link is established with theBluetooth device, every other frame may be a high priority frame for theduration of the SCO link. Additionally, if the Bluetooth device alsoexecutes a page scan while the SCO link is established, the frames notused for SCO link may be used for a high priority page scan. This mayeffectively prevent the collocated WLAN device from transmitting untileither the SCO link is finished or the page scan is finished.

Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditionalapproaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, throughcomparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention asset forth in the remainder of the present application with reference tothe drawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A system and/or method for auto coexistence priority selection for a SCOlink, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with atleast one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

Various advantages, aspects and novel features of the present invention,as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof, will be morefully understood from the following description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a Bluetooth piconet, which may be utilized inconnection with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a host device with a Bluetoothdevice collocated with a WLAN device, which may be utilized inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 a is a diagram illustrating SCO frames in Bluetooth transmission,in connection with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 b is a graph illustrating exemplary HV2 SCO link in Bluetoothtransmission, in connection with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 c is a graph illustrating exemplary HV2 SCO link in Bluetoothtransmission, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary steps for auto coexistencepriority selection for a SCO link, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and systemfor auto coexistence priority selection for a SCO link. Aspects of themethod may comprise a first Bluetooth device communicating with acollocated WLAN device via a coexistence method. The first Bluetoothdevice may communicate a low priority via the coexistence method priorto the first Bluetooth device executing a non-SCO task if a SCO link ispresent between the first Bluetooth device and a second Bluetoothdevice, and if the current non-SCO task being handled by the firstBluetooth device is a high priority task. The non-SCO task may be a taskthat does not involve a transfer of an SCO packet between two Bluetoothdevices. The non-SCO tasks may be, for example, tasks such as Bluetoothinquiry scan and page scan. The SCO link may be a HV2 SCO link or a HV3SCO link.

Execution of the non-SCO task may comprise transmitting and/or receivingat least one Bluetooth packet in at least one Bluetooth frame. The firstBluetooth device may operate as a master and the second Bluetooth devicemay operate as a slave. Alternatively, the first Bluetooth device mayoperate as a slave and the second Bluetooth device may operate as amaster. If the Bluetooth SCO link is not present between the firstBluetooth device and the second Bluetooth device, and if the currentnon-SCO task being handled by the first Bluetooth device is a highpriority task, a high priority may be communicated via the coexistencemethod prior to the first Bluetooth device executing the non-SCO task.

FIG. 1 illustrates a Bluetooth piconet that may be utilized inconnection with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1,there is shown a personal computer (PC) 100, a laptop 110, and apersonal digital assistant (PDA) 120. These three host devices, or hostplatforms, may each be Bluetooth enabled. Each host device may have aBluetooth application and a Bluetooth communication device fortransmitting and receiving signals. Each host device may then beconsidered to be a Bluetooth device. Up to eight Bluetooth devices maycommunicate with each other in a local network called a piconet. In agiven piconet, only one Bluetooth device may be a master, while theothers may be slaves.

The process for designating a master may be a dynamic process each timea piconet is set up. A Bluetooth device may be a member of multiplepiconets, where it may be designated as a master device for one piconet,and a slave device for another piconet. Each Bluetooth device may use analgorithm that takes into account different variables, for example,performance and power requirements, in deciding whether it may want tobe a master device. For example, since transmitting signals to locateother Bluetooth devices to form a piconet may utilize and transmissionbandwidth, a Bluetooth device may wait passively for other Bluetoothdevices to try to establish a piconet. A Bluetooth device that findsother Bluetooth devices, and establishes a connection with one or moreBluetooth devices, may be designated as the master Bluetooth device forthat piconet. Multiple piconets that may have connection with eachother, for example, where a Bluetooth device may be a member of morethan one piconet, may be referred to as a scatternet.

Although only a single piconet is illustrated, in a system comprising aplurality of piconets, it may be possible for a Bluetooth device tooperate as a master device in one piconet and as a slave device in anadjacent piconet. For example, a Bluetooth device A may operate as amaster device in a first piconet P1 and as a slave device in a secondpiconet P2. In another example, the Bluetooth device A may operate as aslave device in a first piconet P1 and as a master device in a secondpiconet P2. A master device, for example, the PC 100, may communicatewith each of the slave devices, for example, the laptop 110 and the PDA120. However, the slave devices may not communicate directly with eachother. When the master device moves out of range of communication, thepiconet may be destroyed until another Bluetooth device establishes apiconet.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a host device with a Bluetoothdevice and a WLAN device, which may be utilized in accordance with anembodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown a hostdevice 200. The host device 200 may comprise a Bluetooth communicationdevice 210, a WLAN communication device 212, a processor 220, and memory230. The Bluetooth communication device 210 may be a Bluetooth radio,which may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may enablecommunication of data, command and/or status with other Bluetoothdevices.

The Bluetooth communication device 210 may comprise a handshaking block210 a and a processor 211. The handshaking block 210 a may comprisesuitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may enable communication withthe WLAN communication device 212 using a coexistence method. Thecoexistence method may comprise using a plurality of signals, which mayinclude a Priority signal from the Bluetooth device.

The handshaking block 210 a may assert and deassert signals according toa particular coexistence method used to indicate whether the Bluetoothdevice may be executing a task that may be high priority. Thecoexistence method used may be design and/or implementation dependent.The processor 211 or the processor 220 may control the handshaking block210 a, for example. Some Bluetooth tasks, for example, tasks associatedwith an SCO link between two Bluetooth devices, may assert a highpriority for frames used for SCO packet transfer. FIG. 2 may show thatthe Priority signal may be communicated to the WLAN communication device212 for simplicity. The Priority signal, and other signals that may beassociated with a coexistence method used, may be communicated to andfrom, for example, a packet traffic arbitration (PTA) unit 212 a.

The WLAN communication device 212 may be a WLAN radio, which maycomprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may enablecommunication of data, command and/or status with other WLAN devices.The processor 220 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or codethat may enable communication of data, command and/or status with theBluetooth communication device 210 and the WLAN communication device212. The memory 230 may comprise suitable logic and/or circuitry thatmay enable storage of information, such as, for example, data and/orcode, that may be used by other devices.

In operation, the host device 200 may be, for example, the laptop 110that may be enabled for Bluetooth via the Bluetooth communication device210, and connected to a LAN via the WLAN communication device 212. Theprocessor 220 may be the main processor for the host device 200. Anapplication that uses the Bluetooth communication device 210 may be adifferent application than the application that is accessing the LAN viathe WLAN communication device 212. Accordingly, the communicationdevices 210 and 212 may not be coordinated with respect to when each maytransmit and/or receive.

A multiwire signaling protocol for a coexistence method, for example,may be used by a Bluetooth communication device 210 and a WLANcommunication device 212 to better coordinate RF tasks in order toalleviate interference between the Bluetooth communication device 210and the WLAN communication device 212. The signaling on the Bluetoothside may be accomplished by, for example, the handshaking block 210 a,which may be controlled by, for example, the processor 211 and/or byhardware circuitry in the Bluetooth communication device 210.

For example, the PTA unit 212 a may receive signals from the Bluetoothcommunication device 210 and from the WLAN communication device 212, andmay arbitrate which device may have priority for transmission and/orreception during a specific period of time. The PTA unit 212 a maycommunicate to the Bluetooth communication device 210 to indicatewhether the Bluetooth communication device 210 may have priority. ThePTA unit 212 a may also communicate to the WLAN communication device 212whether it may have priority.

FIG. 3 a is a diagram illustrating SCO frames in Bluetooth transmission,in connection with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 3a, there is shown a diagram 300 of SCO frames when HV1 method is used, adiagram 302 of SCO frames when HV2 method is used, and a diagram 304 ofSCO frames when HV3 method is used. The HV1, HV2, and HV3 methods for aSCO link may be used for a variety of conditions that may have differentinterfering noise. For example, the HV3 method may be used when there isrelatively little RF interference, and thus no forward error correctionoverhead may be needed for the voice data. Accordingly, 30 bytes ofinformation may be transmitted in a packet, and a HV3 packet may be sentevery 3 frames.

As RF interference increases, the HV2 method may be used. This methodmay transmit 20 information bytes per packet, and each packet may besent every other frame. The HV2 method may also be protected by a ⅔forward error correction code. As RF interference increases still more,the HV1 method may be used. This method may transmit 10 bytes ofinformation per packet that may be protected by ⅓ forward errorcorrection code. Accordingly, the forward error correction code for theHV1 and the HV2 methods may allow some errors to be corrected, but thethroughput may be less. This may be because more frames may be dedicatedto transmitting the same number of information bytes. The escalationscheme described for using the HV3, HV2, and HV1 may be exemplary only.For example, the host device 200 may use the HV1 SCO link as a defaultlink.

In the diagram 300, there is shown the SCO frames 300 a, 300 b, 300 c,and 300 d. Since every frame may be dedicated to one SCO link, aBluetooth master device may not be able to communicate with any otherBluetooth slave devices. In the diagram 302, there is shown the SCOframes 302 a and 302 c, which may be representative of the SCO frames inthe HV2 method. Accordingly, every other frame may be used for the SCOlink, and the other frames may be used for other purposes. This mayinclude communicating with other Bluetooth devices by the Bluetoothmaster device during, for example, the frames 302 b and 302 d.

In the diagram 304, there is shown the SCO frames 302 a and 302 d, whichmay be representative of the SCO frames in the HV3 method. Accordingly,every third frame may be used for the SCO link, and the other frames maybe used for other purposes. For example, the other frames such as theframes 302 b and 302 c may be used to communicate with other Bluetoothdevices by the Bluetooth master device. Accordingly, it may be seen thatvarious percentage of the frames available may be used for an SCO link.The more frames used for an SCO link, the less a collocated WLAN devicemay be able to transmit.

FIG. 3 b is a graph illustrating exemplary HV2 SCO link in Bluetoothtransmission, in connection with an embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 3 b, there is shown frames 310, . . . , 316 that maybe used for a HV2 method SCO link. Accordingly, every other frame may beallocated to an SCO link. These frames may be, for example, the frames310, 312, 314, and 316. The Bluetooth communication device 210 mayindicate to the collocated WLAN device that these frames may be highpriority frames. Accordingly, the WLAN device may decide not to transmitat these times.

A Bluetooth communication device may also have other tasks that may bedeemed to be a high priority task, and hence indicate a high priority tothe collocated WLAN device. The tasks deemed to be a high priority taskmay be implementation dependent, but some may be, for example, inquiryscan and page scan. During an inquiry scan, a Bluetooth master devicemay locate other Bluetooth devices that may be available to connect toits piconet. During a page scan, those Bluetooth devices may beconnected to a piconet by the Bluetooth master device for that piconet.

If a page scan task is set for high priority, then the Bluetooth masterdevice may indicate a high priority for the other frames not used forthe SCO link in order to use them for page scan. The frames used forpage scan may be, for example, the frames 311, 313, and 315.Accordingly, the Bluetooth master device may continuously indicate highpriority frames, and thereby keep the collocated WLAN device fromtransmitting. Therefore, the WLAN device may not be able to transmituntil either the SCO link is removed, the Bluetooth master device timesout on its page scan, or the Bluetooth device that is searched forduring the page scan is located and connected on to the piconet. Thismay adversely affect the throughput of the WLAN device.

A Bluetooth slave device may also assert the transmission portion of aframe as high priority. This may be described by the U.S. applicationSer. No. 11/439,776, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference inits entirety. A Bluetooth slave device may allow a collocated WLANdevice to transmit more than a Bluetooth master device since theBluetooth slave device may only assert high priority for one slot of anon-SCO frame as high priority, rather than assert high priority forboth slots of a frame, as a Bluetooth master device might.

FIG. 3 c is a graph illustrating exemplary HV2 SCO link in Bluetoothtransmission, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 3 c, there is shown frames 320, . . . , 326. Theframes 320, 322, 324, and 326 may be allocated for a HV2 method SCOlink. However, in order to allow the collocated WLAN communicationdevice, for example, the WLAN communication device 212, to transmitduring the SCO link, the Bluetooth communication device 210 may assign alow priority to the other tasks, such as for example, page scan orinquiry scan.

Accordingly, a Bluetooth device may not indicate to the collocated WLANdevice that the frames not used for the SCO link may be high priorityframes. In this manner, the alternate frames, such as for example, theframes 321, 323, and 325, may be used by, for example, the WLANcommunication device 212 to transmit to other WLAN devices. When the SCOlink is no longer active, then the Bluetooth device may assign a highpriority to those tasks whose priority may have been lowered when theSCO link was active.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary steps for auto coexistencepriority selection for a SCO link, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe invention. Referring to FIG. 4, in step 400, the Bluetoothcommunication device 210 may determine whether a SCO link with anotherBluetooth device is present. If so, the next step may be step 402. Ifnot, the next step may be step 400.

In step 402, the Bluetooth communication device 210 may determine thenon-SCO tasks that may be lowered from a high priority to a lowpriority, where the priority may be communicated to a collocated WLANdevice, for example, via the PTA 212 a, prior to a packet beingtransmitted or received by the Bluetooth communication device 210. Thismay allow, for example, a collocated WLAN device to transmit during theframes that are not used to transmit voice data for the SCO link. Instep 404, the Bluetooth communication device 210 may indicate a lowpriority, for example, via the PTA 212 a, to the WLAN device, forexample, the WLAN communication device 212, for the frames that are notused to transmit voice data for the SCO link. Accordingly, thecollocated WLAN device may be able to transmit during at least a portionof each of the frames that are not used to transmit voice data for theSCO link.

In step 406, the Bluetooth communication device 210 may determinewhether there are any SCO links present. If so, the next step may bestep 406 again. Otherwise the next step may be step 408. In step 408,the Bluetooth communication device 210 may determine the non-SCO taskswhose priority communicated to the collocated WLAN communication device212 may be raised from a low priority to a high priority. These tasksmay be, for example, the non-SCO tasks determined in step 402.Generally, these tasks may be those that may have a high prioritycommunicated to the WLAN communication device 212 prior to transmittinga packet in a frame. In step 410, the Bluetooth communication device 210may indicate a high priority to the collocated WLAN device for theframes that may be used for those tasks. Accordingly, when there is noSCO link between, for example, the Bluetooth communication device 210and another Bluetooth communication device, the Bluetooth communicationdevice 210 may be able to transmit packets at a high priority.

Another embodiment of the invention may provide a machine-readablestorage, having stored thereon, a computer program having at least onecode section executable by a machine, thereby causing the machine toperform the steps as described above for auto coexistence priorityselection for a SCO link.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, aspects of anexemplary system may comprise handshaking circuitry, for example, thehandshaking block 210 a, within a Bluetooth communication device 210.The handshaking block 210 a may enable communication of priority with acollocated WLAN communication device 212. The communication of thepriority may be made prior to the Bluetooth communication device 210transmitting and/or receiving a packet in a Bluetooth frame. If aBluetooth SCO link is present between the Bluetooth communication device210 and another Bluetooth device, and if a current non-SCO task beinghandled by the Bluetooth communication device 210 is a high prioritytask, then the priority communicated by the handshaking block 210 a forpackets associated with the current non-SCO task may be low priority. Anon-SCO task may be a task that does not comprise transfer of SCOpackets. The SCO link may be a HV2 SCO link or a HV3 SCO link.

Execution of the non-SCO task may comprise transmitting and/or receivingat least one Bluetooth packet in at least one Bluetooth frame. TheBluetooth communication device 210 may operate as a master and the otherBluetooth device may operate as a slave. Alternatively, the Bluetoothcommunication device 210 may operate as a slave and the other Bluetoothdevice may operate as a master.

If a Bluetooth SCO link is not present between the Bluetoothcommunication device 210 and the other Bluetooth device, and if thecurrent non-SCO task being handled by the Bluetooth communication device210 is a high priority task, the handshaking block 210 a may communicatea high priority using the coexistence interface prior to the Bluetoothcommunication device 210 executing the non-SCO task.

Accordingly, the present invention may be realized in hardware,software, or a combination of hardware and software. The presentinvention may be realized in a centralized fashion in at least onecomputer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elementsare spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind ofcomputer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methodsdescribed herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware andsoftware may be a general-purpose computer system with a computerprogram that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computersystem such that it carries out the methods described herein.

The present invention may also be embedded in a computer programproduct, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation ofthe methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer systemis able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the presentcontext means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of aset of instructions intended to cause a system having an informationprocessing capability to perform a particular function either directlyor after either or both of the following: a) conversion to anotherlanguage, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different materialform.

While the present invention has been described with reference to certainembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention. In addition, manymodifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material tothe teachings of the present invention without departing from its scope.Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited tothe particular embodiment disclosed, but that the present invention willcomprise all embodiments falling within the scope of the appendedclaims.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A device comprising: at least one circuitconfigured to: receive a task from a co-located first device, whereinthe task is assigned a high priority by the first device and the task isperformed without a point-to-point link; determine whether thepoint-to-point link with a second device is currently present; reassignthe assigned high priority to a low priority if the point-to-point linkis determined to be present; communicate a low priority signalcorresponding to the reassigned low priority with regard to the task viaa coexistence method with a co-located third device if thepoint-to-point link is determined to be present; and communicate a highpriority signal corresponding to the assigned high priority with regardto the task via the coexistence method with the co-located third deviceif the point-to-point link is determined to be not present.
 22. Thedevice of claim 21, wherein the at least one processor circuit isfurther configured to: after communicating the low priority signal,transitioning priority from the low priority to the high priority whenthe link is determined to no longer be present.
 23. The device of claim21, wherein the at least one processor circuit is further configured to:after communicating the high priority signal, transitioning priorityfrom the high priority to the low priority when the link is determinedto be present.
 24. The device of claim 21, wherein the at least oneprocessor circuit is further configured to: enable transmission of theco-located third device based at least on the communicated high or lowpriority signal of the task.
 25. The device of claim 21, wherein the atleast one processor circuit is further configured to: initiate executionof the task.
 26. The device of claim 21, wherein the task is associatedwith a first type of packets and the point-to-point link is associatedwith a second type of packets, the second type of packets beingassociated with a higher priority than the first type of packets.
 27. Amethod comprising: receiving, at a traffic arbitration device, a taskfrom a first device co-located with the traffic arbitration device,wherein the task is assigned a high priority by the first device and thetask is exclusive of transmitting a first type of packets; determining,by the traffic arbitration device, a link with a second device fortransmitting the first type of packets is currently present;reassigning, by the traffic arbitration device, the assigned highpriority of the task to a low priority when the link is determined to bepresent; communicating, by the traffic arbitration device, a firstsignal corresponding to the reassigned low priority with regard to thetask via a coexistence method with a co-located third device when thelink is determined to be present; and communicating, by the trafficarbitration device, a second signal corresponding to the assigned highpriority with regard to the task via the coexistence method with theco-located third device when the link is determined to be not present.28. The method of claim 27, wherein the first device transmits on afirst channel having a first bandwidth and the third device transmits ona second channel having a second bandwidth that is greater than thefirst bandwidth.
 29. The method of claim 27, further comprising: aftercommunicating the first signal, transitioning priority of the task, bythe traffic arbitration device, from the low priority to the highpriority when the link is determined to no longer be present.
 30. Themethod of claim 27, further comprising: after communicating the secondsignal, transitioning priority of the task from the high priority to thelow priority when the link is determined to be present.
 31. The methodof claim 27, further comprising enabling transmission of the co-locatedthird device based at least on the communicated first or second signalassociated with the task.
 32. The method of claim 27, further comprisingexecuting the task.
 33. The method of claim 32, wherein the executing ofthe task comprises at least one of transmitting at least one packet inat least one frame or receiving at least one packet in at least oneframe.
 34. The method of claim 27, wherein the link comprises apoint-to-point link and the task comprises a point to multi-point task.35. A computer program product comprising instructions stored in atangible computer-readable storage medium, the instructions comprising:instructions to receive, by a traffic arbitration device, a task from afirst device co-located with the traffic arbitration device, wherein thetask is assigned a high priority by the first device and the task isassociated with transmitting a first type of packets; determining, bythe traffic arbitration device, whether a link with a second device fortransmitting a second type of packets is currently present, wherein thesecond type of packets are associated with a higher priority than thefirst type of packets; reassigning, by the traffic arbitration device,the assigned high priority of the task to a low priority if the link isdetermined to be present; communicating, by the traffic arbitrationdevice, a first signal corresponding to the reassigned low priority withregard to the task via a coexistence method with a co-located thirddevice if the link is determined to be present; and communicating, bythe traffic arbitration device, a second signal corresponding to theassigned high priority with regard to the task via the coexistencemethod with the co-located device if the link is determined to be notpresent.
 36. The computer program product of claim 35, wherein theinstructions further comprise: instructions to, after communicating thefirst signal, transitioning priority of the task, by the trafficarbitration device, from the low priority to the high priority when thelink is determined to no longer be present.
 37. The computer programproduct of claim 35, wherein the instructions further comprise:instructions to, after communicating the second signal, transitioningpriority of the task from the high priority to the low priority when thelink is determined to be present.
 38. The computer program product ofclaim 35, wherein the instructions further comprise: instructions toenable transmission of the co-located third device based at least on thecommunicated first or second signal of the task.
 39. The computerprogram product of claim 35, wherein the instructions further comprise:instructions to initiate execution of the task.
 40. The computer programproduct of claim 35, wherein the link comprises a point-to-point linkand the task comprises a point to multi-point task.